Workflow automation may not be what gets you out of bed every morning, but it’s long been a hot topic in the enterprise software world. There are few businesses that don’t have dozens and dozens of repetitive workflows that can be automated these days. Munich-based Flower Software, first launched in 2019, is trying to put its own stamp on this field by offering a somewhat different approach from many of its competitors.
The company announced today that it has participated in a $3.2 million seed funding round led by La Famiglia VC, along with LEA Partners and Collective Ventures. Several angel investors participated, including Personio founder Ignaz Forstmeier, SAP Hybris founder Carsten Thoma, Savedesk founders Fabian Silberer and Marco Reinbold, and IronHack founder Gonzalo Manrique.
Image Credits: Flowers software
Founded by Andreas Martin and Daniel Voeckler, both of whom spent time working in various small and medium-sized businesses, Flowers currently focuses its marketing on two use cases: invoice approvals and general approvals. But the idea behind the tool is to provide a highly flexible no-code workflow tool to automate any repetitive business process.
“When we founded Flowers, we knew we could solve this major problem because we had experience from our previous jobs, different industries and company sizes, etc.,” Martin said. “What we’ve learned is that there are many things that go wrong every day in every company. […] And unfortunately, because most jobs are in repetitive workflows, they are often wrong. For all these problems, you will find a tool that solves this problem perfectly. So you can solve 1,000 problems and 1,001 tools. But Daniel and I didn’t want to create another single solution tool.
A photo of a group of flowers. Image Credits: Flowers software
Martin says that many traditional workflow automation tools focus on the backend, while Flowers provides tools for anyone in the company to build these workflows, but they can access the user interface to go through these workflows from start to finish. He pointed out that this will help to make information accessible and transparent for everyone in the organization. And while users can integrate many third-party tools, for most use cases, teams are doing most of the work themselves.
The team started building Flowers as a general-purpose automation tool, but realized that simply giving its users all this freedom only led to confusion. So after some trial and error, Flowers decided to build a few templates for common use cases – I received was one of those – and with that the service was launched. What the team needs to do now — and what Flowers will use at least for the new funding — is building templates for more use cases to expand its user base. The group plans to expand its marketing efforts to reach Europe and North America from its current core market of most German-speaking countries.
Image Credits: Flowers software
“We start with different use cases in different countries or we do service cases in all countries, but some countries have more problems with contracts and approvals or travel costs,” Martin explains. “Our highly adaptable software makes it easy for us to support those laws, regulations and compliance rules because the tool is flexible enough.”
Flowers Software was cash flow positive at the beginning of its history, but the team decided to scale up now to grow faster and capture more market places. “We really want to push as hard as we can and weigh as much as we can,” Martin said.
“Flowers is changing the game for SMBs in terms of business efficiency, productivity and profitability. Its unique approach to workflow innovation and automation is resonating with many customers in various industries,” said Judith Dada, General Partner at La Famiglia VC. “With Flowers, companies ultimately have software that fits the job, rather than software that the customer needs to convert. We’re impressed with the product and strong sales demand that Andreas, Daniel and the team have already achieved, and we’re excited to support them as they move into new markets.”
